The Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund breaks ground

On February 12, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund will host a groundbreaking for the organization’s new permanent home in Rwanda. The mission of the campus is to make gorillas an entry point for a lifetime of conservation activism.

The University of Global Health Equity celebrates its inauguration on January 25, 2019.

UGHE seeks to advance the science of healthcare delivery and expand the traditional paradigm of health science education, with an innovative curriculum and campus design. The opening marks 10 years of partnership in the Burera District between MASS, Partners In Health, and the Rwanda Ministry of Health.

We need memorials that embrace truth.

The Equal Justice Initiative created a national lynching memorial as a sacred space for truth-telling and reflection about racial terror in America and its legacy.

“I believe we need to talk about the shame of slavery. We need to talk about the shadows that still haunt us.”
 —Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of EJI 

Read more about the project.

October 12, 2018 marks the opening day of the new Ruhehe Primary School.

Through the partnership between MASS, MSquared Foundation and the District of Musanze, Ruhehe Primary School provided the African Design Centre fellows the opportunity to test the first replication of the Mubuga model for education design in the district.

We are one of five finalists for the MLK Boston Competition.

This competition calls for the design of a new memorial and education center honoring Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr. in Boston. Check it out on display at the Central Branch of the Boston Public Library until October 16.

Leveraging capital projects to amplify mission

Capital projects are large investments, and their design and implementation merit thoughtful preparation, as well as intentional evaluation and reflection. They should be built with purpose—grounded in a clear and strategic mission that informs design decisions, with a scope that matches what its organization can afford to build, operate, and maintain.

Read more about the research project.

The Ilima community partnered with the African Wildlife Foundation and our architecture firm, MASS Design Group, in 2012 to create a new conservation focused primary school and community center. This film documents our collective building process - one aimed at leveraging local craft and ecological knowledge towards education, preservation, and beauty.

Read more about the film.

Upcoming screening dates will be available soon.

We measure the impact of design on health outcomes. 

With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Ariadne Labs and MASS Design Group have collaborated to explore the role of design in improving the quality of clinical care in childbirth.

Read the whole report.

After a catastrophe, how can we heal a community?

“This is a revolution. A positive revolution.”
 —Florence Duperval Guillaume, Former Haitian Minister of Health 

Please watch our documentary trailer and learn more.

Fringe(d) cities hold the seeds of our collective future.

Whether we choose to ignore them or come together to restore them will determine our future as one of reaction or invention. 

Can shelter reduce maternal mortality?

Taking design cues from rural towns, the Maternity Waiting Village in Kasungu, Malawi gives mothers who travel to give birth at a health clinic a comfortable place to stay in the final weeks of their pregnancy.

Read more about the project's design and construction.

Africa needs local human-centered designers.

In September, we will launch our first class of African Design Centre fellows in Kigali, Rwanda. The hands-on program will prepare them to take on the primary infrastructure challenges of a growing and urbanizing continent.

Learn about the African Design Centre.